Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. is proud to bring you the newest product offering, Circuit Break Special Edition whichis jam-packed with value! Not only does it include 3 booster packs of Circuit Break, each box is guaranteed 1 of 2 Super Rare variant cards, as well as 1 of 2 Super Rare preview cards of non-foil cards from the upcoming Spring 2018 booster set!

Marionettes that move on their own, a mad scientist, and vengeful spirits returning to walk the earth are just the beginning of what you’ll find in Circuit Break! This booster is also home to more Link Monsters, including Borreload Dragon, a terrifying new 3000 ATK monster that can brainwash monsters it attacks, giving you control over them until their minds burn out. Famous monsters from history like Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Levia-Dragon - Daedalus return in powerful and unpredictable phantasmal forms as the new Metaphys Nephthys and Metaphys Daedalus. Enforce order on their chaos and you’ll unlock a cycle of creation and destruction that will only stop with your opponent’s defeat!

They went into hiding after Maximum Crisis, but now SPYRAL and the Subterrors have returned with Link Monsters to update their strategies for a new era of Dueling! Summon Subterror Behemoth Fiendess, a “Subterror” Link Monster that can hit the field with up to 4400 ATK, gets your best Flip monsters out of your Deck, and then Summons them! Guess what kind of card is on top of your opponent’s Deck (make sure to peek first with SPYRAL GEAR – Drone) and the new “SPYRAL” Link Monster SPYRAL Double Helix can Summon any “SPYRAL” monster from your Deck. Of course, it also counts as SPYRAL Super Agent on the field and in the Graveyard, so you can use all your “SPYRAL GEAR” cards with it!

Powerful cards that can go in any Deck! Circuit Break has a wide variety of cards that let you do some incredible things no matter what kind of strategy you want to employ. There are also new cards and Deck themes from Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS! You can watch each episode of the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! series soon after it finishes airing in Japan on http://www.crunchyroll.com/and then pick up great cards from the new series in Circuit Break! (Simulcast currently available every Wednesday in the US and Latin America).

A detailed look at reserve list Magic buyouts and their effect on prices. What is a buyout? It occurs when some decides to buy up all of particular Magic card currently available on sites like TCG Player, eBay and Star City Games. Usually, the target is an early card on WOTC's reserve list. The reserve list is a list of cards WOTC has indicated will never be reprinted, while early sets had surprisingly few copies of rares printed. Legends, for example, only had 19,500 copies of each rare printed and a lot of those have been lost over the years.

The author wrote the column because of the increase in buyouts over the past year and to caution players about buying into the "pump and dump" and getting a card when its price artificially peaks. Since a lot of sites use TCG Player as their pricing engine, listing a card on the site at an artificially high price forces the price high on those sites that use the site for pricing. Interesting look at Magic economics, but it can really only impact Legacy players or investors as the cards targeted are not legal for Standard or Modern play.

Monday, August 28, 2017

This week's Rolling for Initiative column looks at this year's Force Friday and Fantasy Flight Games participation in it. Nope, I cannot tell you what the secret item is as I still have no idea. We find out Thursday.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Although talk about it has floated around for a few months, White Wolf made a big announcement about the release of Vampire The Masquerade 5th edition in 2018. They are looking for playtesters for the system though. If you are interested, you can download the pre-alpha playtest kit here and, after trying out the system. you can fill out a survey giving your feedback

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Fantasy Flight Games has announced the new edition of Twilight Imperium at $149.99. There is a hardback copy of the rulebook that is not included with the game but if you pre-order (and pre-pay) for a copy, you will get a copy of the hardback rulebook for free. Note that there is a softcover copy of the rules included with the game, but if you want the hardback copy, this special is the only way to get one (at least until people start selling them on eBay and Amazon. The game is scheuled to release in November and we will take layaway payments on it.

Friday, August 4, 2017

While not mattering much to the individual consumer, exclusivity is a concern for stores since it limits places from which we can order product. For example, one reason it is hard to find the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game is that only one distributor in the US has the right to carry it, so if a store, any store wants to stock it in, the store has to open an account with that distributor. While good for the distributor since it brings more stores in as customers, it is not so good for the store since stores have to split up their available dollars among yet one more source of supply.

There are 5 major gaming distributors in the US and another half dozen or so smaller ones and all of them have some benefit, whether is is an exclusive, or quick delivery or better instock, that causes stores to order from them. The more product lines available from a distributor, the easier it is for a store to put in an order. That's why the email from Arcane Tinman, the producer of the popular Dragonshields card sleeves, is good news. The company was going exclusive with Alliance Distribution, meaning stores would have to have an account with them to get the sleeves. Now, distributors that currently carry them will be able to continue to do so, without opening another account:

Arcane Tinmen has decided to discontinue their business cooperation with Asmodée North America (ANA) in order to maintain a broader distribution network of their products in the United States market. The change will go into effect on August 1st 2017.

Arcane Tinmen will continue to have its products distributed through many main distributors in the US, including Southern Hobby, ACD, GTS and PHD. Arcane Tinmen is thankful for many years of fruitful and prosperous relations with Asmodée NA, and Fantasy Flight Games before that.

Asmodée NA recently announced that they would be going from five distributors to an exclusive partnership with Alliance Game Distributors.

Michael Stehr Lilhav, CEO of Arcane Tinmen, states;

"I recognize that this is a solid move for Asmodée and their business, but the future for Dragon Shield and other Arcane Tinmen accessories lies within the wider distribution network."

Michael Stehr Lilhav adds that Arcane Tinmen is thankful for the many years of partnership the company has had with Asmodée, and that he wishes both companies plenty of good fortune on each of their separate future paths.

Arcane Tinmen is known for their wide range of gaming accessories and high quality trading card game protection products. With the world renowned quality-brand Dragon Shield, Arcane Tinmen has been an important player in the gaming industry for decades.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

According to the below email from GenCon, the convention will have no onsite sales of badges and is close to selling out for the time in its history:

Thursday badges have now sold out and only a limited amount of Friday badges remain for Gen Con 50. This is your last chance to get into the historic show! Gen Con is approaching its first full-sell out, and interested attendees will not want to wait to secure their Friday badge. There will be no onsite sales of badges, so don't delay; order your badge atgencon.com!